24-70 won't focus to infinity

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Archive 2012 · 24-70 won't focus to infinity

Jim Quinn
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p.1 #1 · 24-70 won't focus to infinity

Hi,

Something seems to be blocking the focusing threads on my EF 24-70 lens. It no longer focuses to infinity. The lens works well at short to medium distances, but trying for a photo across a street, for example, results in mushy images. When I try to focus the lens manually, there's a kind of soft restriction when I approach the infinity point, and I can't turn the ring any farther. As far as I know, the lens has not taken any knocks, so I'm not sure what might have caused this.

I'm in Mexico for the winter, and Canon Mexicana's suggestion is that I send the lens to the company's repair facility in Mexico City. Unfortunately, they don't offer expedited service, and they only accept bank transfers as payment - no PayPal, no credit card numbers sent by email.

Although I'll miss using it as my primary walking-around lens, I think I'll park it until I get back north of the border. From what has been posted on this forum, Midwest Camera Repair in Chicago seems to be offering good service at better prices than Canon USA is charging these days.

Has anyone else encountered this problem with this lens?

Feb 03, 2012 at 04:17 AM

BrianO
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p.1 #2 · 24-70 won't focus to infinity

I searched but didn't find a thread about this that I thought I remembered. If I recall, someone else had this problem, and it was a set screw or something like that that had vibrated out of place over time and was restricting movement of the focus mechanism.

Feb 03, 2012 at 05:05 AM

TrojanHorse
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p.1 #3 · 24-70 won't focus to infinity

This is a really long article on a slightly different topic but the subject of the discussion is the 24-70 and it's longevity, and the barrel screws within.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/10/the-limits-of-variation

Maybe it will help you out

Feb 03, 2012 at 10:49 PM

Jim Quinn
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p.1 #4 · 24-70 won't focus to infinity

TrojanHorse, that was a very useful article! Thanks very much.

I plan to do a series of tests with my 24-70. I'll mount it on a sturdy Gitzo, go to Live View and a two-second delay, then test with several apertures (2.8, 4, 5.6, and 8), at several zoom settings AND at several camera-to-subject distances. That should generate a lot of information - and, most importantly, it should tell me the situations where I can get reasonable results with my damaged lens until I can get it fixed.

Once I get back to the US, I'm thinking now that shipping the lens off to Canon repair might be the best bet even if the repair cost is high. It's likely that Canon will have all the needed parts (screws, collars, etc.) and the experience to fix the lens, whereas even the best independent shops (like Midwest camera repair, previously mentioned on this forum) might not have those resources.

Feb 03, 2012 at 11:03 PM

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